[Battlemesh] Gigabit switch/router openwrt with SFP

[David Lang]

On Sat, 7 May 2016, fboehm wrote:

> Am 06.05.2016 um 23:54 schrieb David Lang:
>> 
>> any idea if any of the larger switches can be supported by openwrt?
>
> This bigger switches are typically made out of more exotic switch hardware 
> from Realtek, Broadcom, etc. With focus on the switching performance and 
> other layer2 features. So no focus on generic computing power for stuff like 
> routing protocols, vpn, etc.

Well, that depends on how far up the line you go. I picked up a routerboard 
CR125 because of the OpenWRT work being done on it, but shortly after I did it, 
the developer abandoned the work due to difficulties in dealing with NDAs

There are quite a number of devices around $200 that have a good amount of 
compute power

> Well, that's also not fully true due to the emerging 
> software-defined-networking trend. --> http://openvswitch.org/
>
> The question might be if it is necessary to install OpenWRT on such a device. 
> Maybe you just want to have some control over the ports or get some traffic 
> data. In this case you can also use a managed switches and control it 
> (automated or manual) via the CLI interface.
>
> Not sure what else you could want to do with a 24-port switch :)

well, currently I have 10 things plugged into it and will use another few ports 
for local development/temporary things. If I could get OpenWRT on it, I'd look 
at using it as my gateway.

But with an router, AP, TV, DVD, Tivo, Laptop, links to other parts of the 
house, an 8 port switch starts to get crowded really quickly :-)

OpenWRT on a switch gives you FAR more flexibility and power than the vendor 
firmware (even for something like the routerboard routerOS)

David Lang